We are certainly living in different times and the good news that we can all get on board with is that technological advances are coaxing crazy big dreams out of the woodwork – like taking a trip to the moon.
How much does rocket fuel cost to get to the moon?
Your first thought about traveling in a rocket to the moon might be how am I going to afford to fill up the tank?
If you were able to roll up to the fuel pump in your shiny SpaceX Big Falcon 9 rocket, it’ll cost you somewhere between US$200,000 and $300,000 for topping off the tank with rocket fuel.
That’s actually not too bad considering the cost of that styling ride is US$60 million. Which might be another affordability issue.
But don’t despair, good news is on the event horizon! Enter billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. For eight lucky humans, this trip to the moon is on his dime.
Let me guess, city slickers. full ‘er up with a double-base propellant of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine, combined with an oxidizer of ammonium nitrate? And we don’t take plastic.
Who is Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa?
Mr. Maezawa epitomizes the ultimate dreamer – from trying to make a go of his high school punk band to dropping out of college and starting a mail-order CD and album business, this guy doesn’t have “quit” in his vocabulary.
Fast forward to 2004 when his music business transitioned into an online clothing company and voila! Today, he now has a net worth of around US$2 billion.
We can’t exactly call Mr. Maezawa well-grounded, as he bought all nine tickets on the first commercial space flight to head into space and orbit the moon.
In September 2018, it was announced that Mr. Maezawa will be the first commercial passenger to do a flyby around the Moon aboard a SpaceX Starship.
Deciding he’d create the ultimate rideshare and seek out 8 others to join him, he started what is known as “dear moon.” This website is where you can sign up and try to get chosen to be one of the space passengers. Pre-registration is March 14th, 2021.
The schedule and flight plan.
This civilian lunar orbital mission will have the crew selected by the end of June 2021 at which time training and preparation will begin through 2022.
Liftoff will be in early 2023, as the rocket ship is also a work in progress for the commercial go-ahead. The entire flight from countdown to landing back on Earth will last about 5.5 hours, completing this flyby trip around both our plane and the moon.
If you’re bored with Earth (seriously, you haven’t read about our heart-pounding vacations or thought of gorilla trekking?) then here are 5 reasons why you’ll want to join billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on this space voyage.
Firstly, this is a free trip.
Not a lot we can say about this, but free is good! This is exactly the premise of Jetsetty, where we’ll be sending our own lucky winners on dream vacations absolutely free as well. Great minds think alike.
Suffice it to say, you can leave your wallet at home unless you think you might want to download some songs while on your way to the moon. Since you’ll most likely have a window seat, we recommend you just sit back and enjoy the view.
You get to travel with a billionaire in his pimped-out ride.
Considering Yusaku Maezawa came from humble beginnings and is a college drop-out, who wouldn’t want to know what makes this guy tick, and how can I get some of that mojo to rub off on me?
Hey, it’s not like he can get up and leave the room if you’re bugging him, so this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from a big-time dreamer.
Considering he has a fine collection of cars, is an avid art collector, and was a drummer in a band, he’s well-rounded enough to talk about anything – including rockets.
You get to wear the latest in space fashion.
Nobody wants to go into space looking like a schlump, and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will ensure no fashion faux pas occur. The era of ugly orange “pumpkin” flight suits is now long gone.
A little fun fact, the suit design is a spin-off from earlier SpaceX designs by legendary Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez, who is known for costumes in films such as “Wonder Woman,” “Wolverine,” “Batman vs. Superman” and “Captain America: Civil War.”
With that said, your spacesuit will be the talk of the town, custom-tailored to provide
a pressurized environment while still making sure you’re ready for your close-up.
The spacesuit plugs into and becomes part of the vehicle and is created in-house in the same building the rocket is made. With its own cooling and communications system built-in, so the suit is plug-and-play.
The pièce de résistance is the custom gloves that not only look fab but enable you to easily use the onboard touch-screens.
No word yet of whether this stellar fashion statement will be finished off with the Reebok Floatride Space Boot SB-01 but we can’t imagine Mr. Maezawa leading his posse aboard without them.
You get to annoy mission control with quindar tones.
We’ve all heard those beeping tones during the conversations with mission control and the astronauts, but did you know they actually have a name? They’re called Quindar Tones.
Their purpose is to trigger the ground station transmitters when there is an outgoing transmission from Earth. You can hear them here.
There are 2 slightly different quindar tones. That first and slightly higher tone is called the intro tone and the lower one is the outro.
As their names suggest, one is for the start of saying something, and one is for the end. Kinda elements having to say “over” over and over.
We’re not sure what the protocols are about bringing along cell phones. in those bulky suits, as butt dialing could be a problem.
Being you may not have been easy up to this point, but as one of the first commercial astronauts in history, you’ll now need to get used to the fame – and the masses following you on social media.
This is a golden opportunity to study how Yusaku Maezawa has fun with his own Twitter accounts. His Japanese handle is appropriately named @yousuck2020 and the English version is @yousuckMZ.
This is clearly a guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Further proof is the social media filters he put on his dearMoon website that lets you see yourself in a spacesuit – with lasers shooting out of your eyes.
Conclusion
Our mantra is “Life, Inspired” and we see people who accomplish big, crazy dreams and inspire others to do the same. Billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and of course, Yusaku Maezawa all came from less-than-average everyday lives and elevated themselves with nothing more than a spark in the brain.
We all have that same ability and if something so tiny in your brain can build rocket ships, media moguls, and next-level tech, the only thing holding you back is you.
Let’s face it, as billionaire Yusaku Maezawa reminds us, Earth has really sucked this past year. There are going to be 8 people chosen out of the blue to tag along on this journey, so don’t hold back, get your crew candidate certificate now.
